Read
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
keep watch over the door of my lips!
Psalm 141:3
Reflect
“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me!”
So many of us grew up hearing this phrase, and while it was well-meaning, it’s not really accurate. It was designed to help us fend off verbal assaults, and it supposedly protected us from the harm of hurtful words. Unfortunately, it rarely worked.
Sometimes the breaking of bones hurts less than a bloodless verbal assault that causes emotional wounds. Quick, careless or even intentional words have slaughtered more souls than guns, knives or even all car accidents combined.
There are emergency rooms available for those who are physically bleeding, but it’s all too easy to walk away from the verbal accident scene, leaving the wounded to carry the hurt and pain — sometimes for the rest of their lives. Most physical wounds heal over time with the proper care. On the other hand, a wounded human soul usually requires much more recovery time to reach healing and restoration.
If you have a gun, or even a knife, you will certainly show the greatest of care when handling it in order to keep from hurting yourself or others with it. Make sure that you’re equally, and perhaps even more, careful with that most dangerous weapon of all — the human tongue. It can be used to harm, but it can also be used to heal and ministry. Do everything you can to use your words to build up and to commend the Kingdom of God to those around you.
Reflection copyright © 2021 Doug DeBolt and Charles Fulton.
